Strengthening the core: Denver gets continuity with Jokic, Barton
While populating the Nuggets’ bench early in the 2015-16 season, Will Barton concocted a nickname for him and new teammate Nikola Jokic.
“He called us Kobe and Shaq,” Jokic recalled with a smile.
At the time, that was Barton living up to his own “Thrill” persona. But less than three years later, the versatile playmaker from Baltimore and the 7-footer from Serbia reminisced about watching each other blossom into key pieces of a young Denver team knocking on the door of its return to the NBA playoffs.
The personal reward for Jokic and Barton? Big paydays in the form of long-term contracts. But those deals also signaled the Nuggets’ overall commitment to continuity and natural growth, which they believe will serve as their biggest weapons while navigating a Western Conference that became even more brutally strong this offseason when Lebron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. “The West did get better,” Barton said during Monday’s news conference announcing his fouryear, $53 million deal. “But I feel like, with our culture, it won’t be that hard to make (the playoffs). I think we showed the team that we can be. We just need to come into training camp and preseason with that mind-set we had at the end of the year, and have it from beginning to end.”
The disparity between the conferences is now enormous. Every
active MVP — James Harden, Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, James, Derrick Rose and Dirk Nowitzki — plays in the West.
But the Nuggets won 46 games in 2017-18 and were eliminated from the playoffs in overtime of a winner-take-all contest at Minnesota on the regular season’s final night. Denver split or won the regularseason series with six of the West’s eight playoff teams, and finished three games out of the No. 3 seed despite Paul Millsap’s lengthy absence.
And they’ll have a head start on teams like the Lakers, who must reconfigure their roster and build chemistry while implementing a generational star in James.
“It doesn’t just happen overnight,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. He added: “We’re hitting the ground running. There is no get-to-know-you period.”
Jokic and Barton have been crucial parts of Denver’s steady growth over the past three seasons, taking the rare road from second-round draft picks to franchise cornerstone and do-it-all swingman, respectively.
Jokic has had one of the most stunning surges in recent NBA seasons, leading the Nuggets in scoring (18.5 points per game), rebounding (10.7) and assists (6.1) while shooting 49.9 percent from the floor and 39.6 percent from 3point range last season. He ranked fourth in the NBA with 10 tripledoubles, behind Westbrook, James and Ben Simmons.
Barton, a deep bench player with Portland when Denver traded for him in 2015, is coming off a career season in which he averaged 15.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game in a multitude of roles and finished fourth on the ballot for NBA sixth man of the year.
“I’ve been one of his biggest fans from Day 1,” Barton said of Jokic. “He’s a special person and a special player, and I’m just happy to be a part of his rise and be one of the guys who can go to war with and count on.”
Added Jokic about Barton: “We kind of grew together. … One night he was playing point guard, and one night he’s our best player. He shared the ball and made everyone better, so he showed to us that he can do everything.”
Reupping with Jokic and Barton officially cements a Denver starting lineup with four players who are 27 years old or younger in Jokic, Barton, Gary Harris and Jamal Murray. The other first-teamer is Millsap, a four-time all-star who missed most of last season with a torn wrist ligament. Though that group spent just 65 minutes on the floor together last season, it put up a plus/minus of plus-36.4 per 100 possessions, held an offensive rating of 123 points per 100 possessions and recorded a net rating of 32.9 — all team highs for five-man lineups that played in double-digit games.
Yet locking up Jokic and Barton also required some financial gymnastics, which also symbolically ushered the Nuggets into this new era as a franchise. Wilson Chandler, the final remaining member of the blockbuster 2011 Carmelo Anthony trade, was dealt to Philadelphia last week. Then Denver agreed to send fellow veterans Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur to Brooklyn late Thursday night. Both trades dumped salary to put Denver under the luxury tax threshold — and suddenly made the 23-year-old Harris the longest-tenured Nugget.
The camaraderie between Jokic and Barton was evident at last week’s news conference. Barton playfully needled Jokic when, while thanking all the people who have helped him reach these career heights, Jokic accidentally said “exes” instead of “ex-coaches,” implying his ex-girlfriends. Then when Barton was asked about what made him want to re-sign with the Nuggets, as sly smile formed across Jokic’s face as he pointed to himself.
But Malone also spoke seriously about the trust formed between him and those players, and the happiness and relief he felt in knowing they’ll be part of the organization for years to come.
“It speaks to their willingness and their belief in what we’re building here,” Malone said.
Jokic and Barton have been personally rewarded for their development in Denver, a journey they have largely taken together. Now, the Nuggets are banking that their young core’s continuity and natural growth will push them back to the playoffs in 2018-19 — even in a Western Conference that got more challenging this offseason.
“We’re not too worried about what anybody else is doing,” team president Josh Kroenke said. “We’re worried about kind of what we’re doing and our process of winning …We’re really excited to keep it building and keep it rolling. I think we were just starting to scratch the surface.”